I’m actually really excited for Project 06, it’s basically what Sonic ‘06 would’ve been if Sonic Team had more time. I can’t wait for ChaosX & Co. to finish P06.
Obviously ChaosX can't do it cause legal reasons but if unaffiliated fans were to take P-06 once it's done and then splice in the cutscenes from Sonic 06 between the stages, it would literally be the perfect definitive way to experience the game. If that's not doable, then maybe fans could start a project to voice and animate the cutscenes. Would probably look better than the actual in-game cutscenes.
@@HipnotikHylian Listen bro…a few years ago I said the exact same thing. Why even bother. But after playing it…the difference is night and day! Fun as hell! ChaosX pulled off some seriously impossible shit! The story however…that’s a lost cause lol
Saving people from doing the whole chasing down of optimal settings and which emulator to use and how it all compares is awesome. I'm sure there was a lot of back and forth and real research in this video. 👍
First off, I'd like to give thanks for trying my Xenia Unleashed mod, although I would like to inform that the game plays leagues better on the latest Xenia Canary build, it fixes all black screens and crashes are reduced, there is still hub crashing issues, but you can technically beat the game from start to finish
Gotta say, DO NOT play the PS3 version of 06. The 30 fps cutscenes are actually just part of the PS3 version, it also has less detailed lighting and all reflections are replaced with cubemaps. The game overall also just performs worse than 360 and mods do not work on it. I do not recommend it.
some things that were not mentioned: -xenia's latest canary builds do fix unleashed's black screen issue though i think it still has some crashes? -sonic 06's graphical issues in xenia can be fixed by pressing F5 (as you mentioned with the other games) -iirc there's a patch in rpcs3 that allows 06 to run its cutscenes at 60 FPS? also, mods exist for the original 06 and i think it's pretty cool. there's a mod called "Legacy of Solaris" that improves the game (i mean it's still 06 but it's better, also note that while it does have both a 360 version and a ps3 version, the ps3 version is deprecated).
You could just buy an Xbox series X and pop all your old 360 games in to play natively, which most of the time would be a better experience than emulating, coming from personal experience. Also a lot of 360 games have higher resolution/frame rates on Series X/S.
Sega All Stars Tennis is such an underrated game. I remember picking it up with my best friend at a GameStop for $2 a decade ago and had an absolute blast with it
I've been meaning to check out P 06 for awhile. At first I wanted to wait for it to be finished but I'm trying to kick that habit. A lot of fan games never reach completion, and I want to be there to see the hard work that's already put in.
That’s super unfortunate to hear about how Unleashed runs through these emulators. I’ve only played the Wii version of the game, and it sucks to see that the only way to have a truly smooth experience with the HD version is to play it on a system I have no plans on getting. Still, I appreciate this comprehensive overview of the state on playing Unleashed and the other Sonic games on PC via emulation. Hopefully, it gets better, and soon!
I've been playing Unleashed on RPCS3 (I couldn't find a 360 rom to use unfortunately, but at least button symbols for Playstation are also more natural to me). I played the Wii version when it came out before it, but yeah, I still think the Wii version is better. I know everyone who played on Xbox and Playstation made fun of the Wii version, but the Wii version has way less beginners traps that just instantly kill you and it is way more an information overdose. I also find the set pieces to be slightly more memorable in the Wii version as well as each section looks more unique. Though I do think playing the werehog on it feels nicer, the unlock system is way more convoluted and that game basically requires you to do the quick time events to guarantee that S rank. Wii may have felt more clunky at night, but the quick time events being basically required sucks.
@@Skylancer727 I agree. The Wii and PS2 versions are better than the 360 and PS3 versions. The Wii version is better than the PS2 version in most ways. With that said the Wii version over did it with the werehog stages. That game is about 60-70% werehog which just is not as much fun as the daytime stages.
@@RegalPixelKing the same os try on the Xbox and PS3 versions. They also had way more night stages than day. It was Sonic Team's way to make developing the game easier as day stages take more effort to make. The thing the Wii version does more of is have tutorial stages similar to Sefret Rings and Black Knjght. And of course there is the major downside that the Wii version has incredibly low quality pre rendered cutscenes and the ridiculous cutscene quick time events when playing the story.
@@Skylancer727 I'd say the 360 and PS3 version was closer to 50% in its Sonic stage to Werehog stage ratio. That's still 50% too much if you ask me, but I feel like it was better in that version.
@@RegalPixelKing the night stages on 360/PS3 were still 15 minutes long and there were still over 3 night stages per area with only one major day stage and maybe one 1 or 2 bonus challenge stages depending if you have the DLC.
This is a really good video! It helps draw all the comparisons in each separate game. Through my current trek of every Sonic game, I've finally reached 06, and now I know what I can do to run this game optimally without pulling out my old 360 (thankfully). It's really cool what the people behind these emulators have achieved, and I hope to continue doing. Especially cool that some other awesome people just made Free Riders accessible. Thank you tho for the guide to let me enjoy 06 to the fullest!
Honestly, unless you're a total purist, or just desperate to play Sonic 06 in its entirety right now...I would just recommend Project 06. Either wait a while for it to be more complete, or get your fill by playing it as it is. There are just so many more improvements beyond the loading screens.
I'm proud to say I got married and sent two kids through college in the time it took Sonic 06 to load a Soleanna mission on the 360. At some point during chaoticcranium Jr.'s high school graduation, we thought we heard the old Shoemaker go HWAH-HUH indicating his one line of dialog finally loaded on the 360. Turns out it was just the principal clearing his throat.
One thing you can try on RPCS3 for games that are locked at 30 fps: Go to the advanced settings and increase the vblank frequency. It's normally set to 60hz to emulate the expected refresh rate of the TVs at the time, but if you set it to 120hz, the internal frame rate will also double and 30fps games will run at 60. Do note that any frame dips will be twice as large as well if you do this
6:43 - 6:59 About that, it's a memory corruption and it can happen at any point in the game regardless of what stage you're in. Usually this can be easily fixed in Xenia by pressing the F4 key which basically fixes the corrupted textures currently on screen.
6:44 The F5 trick you used later on in the video actually works for '06 as well! It happens a lot less often than with Generations, so I'd say that's a pretty good fix for this issue.
PSA, the development 'canary' build of xenia has an optional game patch for Unleashed that enables 60 fps without the vsync workaround along with a patch that makes the game render at a full 720p instead of the actual smaller resolution it normally does. Higher resolutions are still borked but the game runs really great in my experience now, just gotta use that xenia unleashed mod shown in the video. And you can use a patched .xex file to remove the 360 version's brown filter too. There's also mods for HD UI, homing attack on the A button, etc
Thanks for the video! I think emulating a game that's available natively on PC can be a good thing for many reasons. Compatibility is probably the biggest one in the long term. A lot of PC ports from back in the day don't run nearly as well as they should these days and developers aren't too interested in maintaining the PC version for any future hardware/windows revisions. It's not too bad when it comes to the Sonic games thankfully but I have been able to play some games that outright refuse to run on my PC without major issues. You also get some benefits in the short term as well such as easier controller setup for Parsec and easier resolution and framerate management when the native PC port doesn't offer much higher than the common settings of the time. It negates the need to go hunting around the internet for a fix/workaround. And as of just recently, RPCS3 has added early save state support. This could be a big one once it's fleshed out.
At the moment all of these native PC ports run way better on PC so there is no reason to play the emulated version. Sonic All stars Racing runs beautifully on PC with support for completely unlocked framerate and arbitrary resolution support. That said I wonder how the Wii U version of Sonic Transformed runs in Cemu
I'm honestly wanting to play Yakuza Ishin and Yakuza Kenzan with an English patch if one exists because God knows SEGA won't localise them now that Sato-san and Nagoshi-san have left the company
Kenzan was never gonna get a translation for obvious story-related reasons (if you know you know) and Sato wanted the remake treatment for ISHIN a game that isn't dated in the slightest, and assuming he was referring to a Kiwami treatment of sorts, we probably wont get it because they confirmed that the Kiwami series was over. As for Judgement I don't even know, nothing about the pc port cancellation was confirmed and not only that, the PC port for the game is complete and used for streaming services like Stadia and Luna hence why they have mouse and keyboard prompts and better performance, I feel like Sega would've released it by now if they could.
@@moister3727 If you’re referring to Kenzan then yes, we’ll sort of. Let’s just say that they included it because it was a real thing that happened during Miyamoto Musashi’s time. Maybe they would’ve translated it back then but now it ain’t really a good time. Let’s just say: you know the CP Shrine in 0? in this game the bad guys kind of like a different kind of Completion Points and it ain’t good, though to RGG historical accuracy mattered
It literally only took me 11 seconds on 360 (My Kinect black one) to load or sometimes less and OMG I’ll sub because you mentioned Sonic and Sega all stars racing which I’m also forced to use on my Xbox 360 and I have my DLCs
If you emulate 06 on Xenia or RPCS3 you can play a mod of 06 that vastly improves the game (Legacy of Solaris). Granted P06 has all 3 campaigns now and all levels aside from the bosses and Final. So you would only miss the Bosses, Final Story, and Cutscenes. Also thanks GVG! Thanks to you I now have a version of RPCS3 that can play LoS!
Few things I'd like to address: Firstly, there is a "SWA" build of Xenia by Skyth which also fixes a lot of issues with the game and makes it much more stable. You still can't finish it from start to finish but it's good for modding. Secondly, RPCS3 also can't finish the game from start to finish smoothly. It can, but mostly night stages aren't very stable to run through. 12:25 - game is heavily utilizing SPUs, hence it's very CPU bound. It's a well-known tough to run game on the emulator and is used as a benchmark quite often. You'll have the best luck running it with a AVX-512 capable Intel CPU.
I've played Sonic Unleashed on RPCS3 and it runs way better than what you showed. I get a stable 60fps in most of the game. I don't know if it's your PC or if it's the settings you have, but I definitely know you're doing something wrong here. My PC has an Intel Core i9-12900K and 32GB of DDR4 RAM. I have Unleashed updated to 1.02 and, under Manage Game Patches, I have 1280x720 Resolution checked, Disable Depth Of Field checked, Disable Dynamic Shadows checked, Disable Motion Blur checked and Disable Real-Time Reflections checked. In the settings, I have Full Width AVX-512 checked (make sure your CPU's E-cores are disabled if you're using an Intel Alder Lake CPU). This feature is extremely important if you want better performance in your PS3 games, especially Unleashed.
It might be because he has a AMD CPU and you cannot turn on AVX-512. I have a AMD CPU in my laptop and I have a similar issue to him. No matter how high I turn up the resolution game performance isn't that much better. Although plenty of segments do run well. Nevermind the fact that Intel still has the best performing CPUs out there
@@crestofhonor2349 Yeah that's probably why. I hear the newer AMD Zen4 CPUs will support AVX-512. AMD fans who wanna emulate PS3 will be happy with this news.
@@AllieRX In my experience PS3 emulation has been great on my Ryzen 5800H. Sonic Unleashed is the only one with major performance issues. Stuff like P5 and other games run really well. But to be fair I haven't tested the game with all the effects taken away it takes away the amazing visuals that unleashed has but I will see if that improves anything but I doubt it. It might be a CPU limitation as I have a 3060 so I shouldn't be seeing a GPU bottleneck
@@crestofhonor2349 RPCS3 is very CPU demanding, but you don't really need an expensive GPU, unlike Xenia. My PC has the 12900K, but it also has a GTX 1060 6GB. Yet I can get amazing performance, even at 4K. So your 3060 is good. Just need a stronger CPU to emulate the harder to run PS3 games. God Of War III and God Off War: Ascension are two more examples.
Ik this video is about emulation, but if you have a PS3 and want to play them on that, you can make 06/Unleashed/Generations run way better on PS3 if you turn the resolution of the console down. I was absolutely shocked by what it did to 06. It doesn't make the loading screens shorter but it really reduces the lag, it makes it really playable! As long as the lower resolution doesn't bother you obviously.
Oh yeah now that you mention it digital Foundry has mentioned that turning the resolution down does in fact improve performance across many games. In fact they just put out a 4 part video series regarding 1080 games on ps3 and found that in some cases setting the console resolution to 480p delivers acceptable performance than you would otherwise get at 720p or 1080p
I actually liked the Sonic 06 Demo on Xbox 360 way more than the retail version. It felt polished, stable, and well put together unlike the "full game."
Looking forward to the day that Xenia gives us the feature to map controller inputs to kinect motions similar to what you can do with Wii remote swings in Dolphin. Then Free Riders might actually become a playable game!
Sega Tennis alongside GTA IV was one of my favourites when I was 8-9 years old. Now in 2023 I’m 16 and I have a Series X I also have beaten GTA IV and would love to relive that nostalgia for Sega Tennis but yeah no backwards compatibility is a bit shit.
some graphical glitches in xenia can be eliminated by hitting F4 or F5 to reset the cache. in sonic 06 this is a lifesaver as i got stuck in aquatic base for ages due to screen tearing
Sonic Unleashed works so much better on the latest canary build of Xenia than even a few months ago. Vertex explosions are far rarer, a far improved framerate, and Skyscraper Scamper renders properly. It's crazy how much it's improved so quickly, and I'd imagine we're gonna get a mostly perfect emulated Sonic Unleashed experience in less than a year or two, maybe sooner.
It's a missed opportunity how the Xbox Series X didn't add Sonic Heroes, Shadow The Hedgehog, Sonic Mega Collection+, Sonic 06, and a few others. That would've made the Xbox Series X the ultimate Sonic console.
And Microsoft said they stopped doing 360 ports a few months ago. They still ported games over afterwards, but SEGA probably just wants people to forget the game anyways.
Hey Jon, awesome video. It was a great showcase for the casual audience about what these emulators can do. Unfortunately you made a slight mistake at 10:25. It would have been more accurate to just say "FSR is an upscaling method by AMD". FSR 1.0 used in Xenia and RPCS3 is a spatial scaler and is not like NVidia's DLSS (2.X). DLSS doesn't upscale an image but reconstructs it using temporal information (basically data based on previous frames). I know this is starting to get complicated and I am complaining about semantics, but unfortunately the comparison you made is false and I think it would just make people more confused. Of course this is minor in the grand scheme of things, so perhaps it is just me being nitpicky. Nevertheless, I thought it would be best to clarify that
I think I remember hearing something about 06's loading times Apparently whenever the game loads THE WHOLE GAME LOADS, LIKE EVERYTHING The entire game loads on a single .lua file Tell me if I'm wrong though
@@bunsmasterbunny true. I'm going to take it a step further and say that I even liked the story: yes it had its flaws, but I never thought it was that bad. Also: SonicxElise for life💗
with the latest canary build of xenia and using the vulkan backend, sonic unleashed is completely playable from start to finish, with only a few minor graphical issues
To me, it seems like RPCS3 is the more _accurate_ emulator, whereas Xenia can push games further although becoming less stable doing so. The way Sonic Unleashed was running on RPCS3? Yeah, that's how it runs on a PS3. Load times in Sonic '06 are maybe only (slightly) better because you're loading the game from an SSD or something along those lines. Also, it's worth nothing that, even though it's kind of a different game, Unleashed for Wii works great on Dolphin.
It's worth point out that despite the launch model ps3 being backward compatible with ps2 games, Sega Superstars tennis is apparently one of the only ps2 games not playable on a backward compatible ps3.
The unleashed issues on xenia were mor efun for me, because the game doesn't crash and instead sonic's model explodes into polygons that take up the whole screen and don't let you see anything, but you can still play it blindfolded
I have a video of me emulating 06 on Xenia with my low-end PC. It mostly runs great, but the texture bugs in the mach speed section of Wave Ocean are happening to me too! I thought that was just a "me" thing considering how bad my build is, but I guess it's just Xenia screwing one part up.
You can nowadays use Xenia Canary with Vulkan graphics API (easily configurable through Unleashed Mod Manager) to play through the entire game of Sonic Unleashed from beginning to end.
Good to see the RPCS3 Unleashed performance is not just my PC I was afraid it was my PC only being about on par with a ps4pro but it seems like it just chugs anyway (though my specs certainly don't help) Guess I'll have to wait till I can get an XBOX lmao
I wonder if this type of their video could be some sorta #Hi-Technicaaal series or summat. Like the Persona one as well. A cute Super Paper Mario reference.
As much as i've played P-06 to hell and back and how awesome of a game it is, I do crave for the original 06 despite how much of a contrast there is in the gameplay between the two. Seeing it run on xenia now is amazing. One of the big reasons for me to play P-06 was definitely the load times, so i think i'll be giving the original game another go on xenia at some point. I remember a few years ago it *sort of* ran, but with graphical glitches out coming out your nose and crashes were frequent. Does anyone happen to know if the DLC works on xenia too? P.S Not that im discrediting P-06, it adds a ton of new features to the game which are definitlely appreciated, and boy am i hyped for Silvers story to be released after playing his short sections in Sonic and Shadows story
also try skyth build of xenia and also the mods for unleashed that make the game run at a full 1280x720 instead of the weird anamorphic res they use for even better upscaling
Mania was made by fans and it was awesome, sonic 06 being remade by fans and is looking awesome. Sega's own remastered colors was pretty bad so I agree Sega should just get fans to make their games, since they can't seem to make their own games anymore well besides Yakuza
The PS3 version of Unleashed isn't actually RPCS3's fault, as the frame drops act exactly the same (to my knowledge) as on real hardware. The PS3 actually doesn't have a framecap unlike the 360 version by default, too, but is still barely able to ever reach 60.
I wish you had also tried "Sonic the Fighters" for ps3 and 360 , its the best version of the game that was updated to let you play as Metal Sonic, Doctor Robotnik, and Honey the Cat with no cheats instead of emulated gems collection version where honey is unfinished. The only other way to play this updated game on modern systems is in the in game arcade of the game "Lost Judgment".
So it's weird, the chugging and FPS drops in PS3 Unleashed were actually in the original, especially that bit at 12:20, but it was never *that* bad, it's like the emulator amplified the faults
Both of these are community driven emulators that are constantly getting updated by programmers on their spare time, trying to get them to work with EVERY game released on each platform. I guarantee both of these are going to be far better in time.
@@weirdotzero7065 I never said it was a bad thing?? I understand emulation is never going to be perfect, especially early on. What I was commenting on was that it was just interesting how the same frame drops appear, that means it's actually not an emulation problem, it's the "hardware" of the emulated ps3 that's causing the issue. Meaning actual PS3's were never able to keep up with that section, which I can confirm because I get constant frame drops on that exact section on real hardware, just not as drastic
Honestly the Banjo Kazooie version of that game not being compatible with Series X boggles my mind still. I can remember trying it myself only to be disappointed and very confused. Should have been up at the top of their list with a Rare IP in it.
Dang I wish I had a proper PC to try these. I actually tried to buy 06 when it showed up on the 360 marketplace for like $5, but I'm in Venezuela and region locking just wouldn't let me. I also tried to set up a VPN to get around it to no avail.
If you're very dedicated, you may be able to Jtag or RGH your Xbox and be able to play an ISO of the game. It's not easy at all but there's a lot of resources on how to pull it off.
@@wuavo9157 Not really. Steam kinda hates that and has been known to ban accounts for trying to buy and pplay games from other regions if you do not live there
There is only one HUGE problem with Sonic 2006 on Xenia... SHADOW'S KINGDOM VALLEY!!! Shadow spawning a bit higher and he can't start a plane. There is 1/115 change, that level will be ok. I have checked this.
Old man: here has you some shoeses run through yon orange orangutangs Loading... Old man: I like men Loading... Gameplay... Old man: oh u did it none hadn't completed thon challenge.
Transformed on PC has a huge issue, it doesn't work on newer PCs with RTX cards. It just crashes on boot due to RTX cards not have a specific DX9 thing. You need to use a DirectX to Vulkan dll to make it work through Vulkan
Early in the PS3's life multiplatform games generally ran a lot worse than later on where they were usually very close. Developers had no experience with the Cell SPEs and without its help the GPU and CPU side is weaker than 360. Dev tools also improved a lot and I think that's part of why companies like Valve made a U-turn and returned to developing for the PS3. I haven't tried it, but supposedly the PS3 version of 06 runs really poorly. Considering the 360 version doesn't run great to begin with I wonder how poor it is.
I can't speak for the Xbox, but whenever I played as Tails in Sega Superstars Tennis, on Wii, he would freeze. Not the game, Tails himself would freeze, and I wouldn't be able to move anymore
Upscaling in Xenia kills my GPU (GTX 1070 Ti) hahaha I prefer playing Sonic 2006 in RPCS3 due to 2K looks great than 720p in Xenia, loading times is not a problem for me xP
Hypothetically, yes but considering the game itself can be quite buggy I expect that even if Microsoft tried to bring over the game there will be a lot of unintended issues that may crop up from having the game run through an emulator much like it does on Xenia or rpcs3
I’m actually really excited for Project 06, it’s basically what Sonic ‘06 would’ve been if Sonic Team had more time. I can’t wait for ChaosX & Co. to finish P06.
Lmao you can't honestly be serious
Obviously ChaosX can't do it cause legal reasons but if unaffiliated fans were to take P-06 once it's done and then splice in the cutscenes from Sonic 06 between the stages, it would literally be the perfect definitive way to experience the game. If that's not doable, then maybe fans could start a project to voice and animate the cutscenes. Would probably look better than the actual in-game cutscenes.
@@HipnotikHylian why not?
@@EXCLMaker the cutscenes are already being redone
@@HipnotikHylian Listen bro…a few years ago I said the exact same thing. Why even bother. But after playing it…the difference is night and day! Fun as hell! ChaosX pulled off some seriously impossible shit!
The story however…that’s a lost cause lol
Saving people from doing the whole chasing down of optimal settings and which emulator to use and how it all compares is awesome. I'm sure there was a lot of back and forth and real research in this video. 👍
First off, I'd like to give thanks for trying my Xenia Unleashed mod, although I would like to inform that the game plays leagues better on the latest Xenia Canary build, it fixes all black screens and crashes are reduced, there is still hub crashing issues, but you can technically beat the game from start to finish
Gotta say, DO NOT play the PS3 version of 06. The 30 fps cutscenes are actually just part of the PS3 version, it also has less detailed lighting and all reflections are replaced with cubemaps. The game overall also just performs worse than 360 and mods do not work on it. I do not recommend it.
Mods do work, you just have to convert them which isnt too hard.
@@wuavo9157 Level mods do not work.
wait you can put mods on console games?
@@gilbert64 yeah if the consoles are modded
@@evdestroy4121 Because they are coded differently on xbox. Anything else besides Xbox custom music works.
some things that were not mentioned:
-xenia's latest canary builds do fix unleashed's black screen issue though i think it still has some crashes?
-sonic 06's graphical issues in xenia can be fixed by pressing F5 (as you mentioned with the other games)
-iirc there's a patch in rpcs3 that allows 06 to run its cutscenes at 60 FPS?
also, mods exist for the original 06 and i think it's pretty cool. there's a mod called "Legacy of Solaris" that improves the game (i mean it's still 06 but it's better, also note that while it does have both a 360 version and a ps3 version, the ps3 version is deprecated).
I hope Xenia improves in future, it should get more love. I own a ton of 360 titles and seeing them run on PC would be amazing.
You could just buy an Xbox series X and pop all your old 360 games in to play natively, which most of the time would be a better experience than emulating, coming from personal experience. Also a lot of 360 games have higher resolution/frame rates on Series X/S.
@@jordanelliott0408 Sadly, a lot of 360 games don't work on series X. In fact, only the ones that have been "remastered" for Series do...
Sega All Stars Tennis is such an underrated game. I remember picking it up with my best friend at a GameStop for $2 a decade ago and had an absolute blast with it
lol me and my brother used to play it so much, we had it on 360 but we played it in 1080p
I've been meaning to check out P 06 for awhile. At first I wanted to wait for it to be finished but I'm trying to kick that habit. A lot of fan games never reach completion, and I want to be there to see the hard work that's already put in.
That’s super unfortunate to hear about how Unleashed runs through these emulators. I’ve only played the Wii version of the game, and it sucks to see that the only way to have a truly smooth experience with the HD version is to play it on a system I have no plans on getting.
Still, I appreciate this comprehensive overview of the state on playing Unleashed and the other Sonic games on PC via emulation. Hopefully, it gets better, and soon!
I've been playing Unleashed on RPCS3 (I couldn't find a 360 rom to use unfortunately, but at least button symbols for Playstation are also more natural to me). I played the Wii version when it came out before it, but yeah, I still think the Wii version is better. I know everyone who played on Xbox and Playstation made fun of the Wii version, but the Wii version has way less beginners traps that just instantly kill you and it is way more an information overdose.
I also find the set pieces to be slightly more memorable in the Wii version as well as each section looks more unique. Though I do think playing the werehog on it feels nicer, the unlock system is way more convoluted and that game basically requires you to do the quick time events to guarantee that S rank. Wii may have felt more clunky at night, but the quick time events being basically required sucks.
@@Skylancer727 I agree. The Wii and PS2 versions are better than the 360 and PS3 versions. The Wii version is better than the PS2 version in most ways. With that said the Wii version over did it with the werehog stages. That game is about 60-70% werehog which just is not as much fun as the daytime stages.
@@RegalPixelKing the same os try on the Xbox and PS3 versions. They also had way more night stages than day. It was Sonic Team's way to make developing the game easier as day stages take more effort to make.
The thing the Wii version does more of is have tutorial stages similar to Sefret Rings and Black Knjght. And of course there is the major downside that the Wii version has incredibly low quality pre rendered cutscenes and the ridiculous cutscene quick time events when playing the story.
@@Skylancer727 I'd say the 360 and PS3 version was closer to 50% in its Sonic stage to Werehog stage ratio. That's still 50% too much if you ask me, but I feel like it was better in that version.
@@RegalPixelKing the night stages on 360/PS3 were still 15 minutes long and there were still over 3 night stages per area with only one major day stage and maybe one 1 or 2 bonus challenge stages depending if you have the DLC.
This is a really good video! It helps draw all the comparisons in each separate game. Through my current trek of every Sonic game, I've finally reached 06, and now I know what I can do to run this game optimally without pulling out my old 360 (thankfully).
It's really cool what the people behind these emulators have achieved, and I hope to continue doing. Especially cool that some other awesome people just made Free Riders accessible.
Thank you tho for the guide to let me enjoy 06 to the fullest!
Honestly, unless you're a total purist, or just desperate to play Sonic 06 in its entirety right now...I would just recommend Project 06. Either wait a while for it to be more complete, or get your fill by playing it as it is. There are just so many more improvements beyond the loading screens.
I'm proud to say I got married and sent two kids through college in the time it took Sonic 06 to load a Soleanna mission on the 360.
At some point during chaoticcranium Jr.'s high school graduation, we thought we heard the old Shoemaker go HWAH-HUH indicating his one line of dialog finally loaded on the 360. Turns out it was just the principal clearing his throat.
Shoot if loading was that long then maybe I wouldn’t have finished it but I did
So that’s why there’s no play through videos
One thing you can try on RPCS3 for games that are locked at 30 fps: Go to the advanced settings and increase the vblank frequency. It's normally set to 60hz to emulate the expected refresh rate of the TVs at the time, but if you set it to 120hz, the internal frame rate will also double and 30fps games will run at 60. Do note that any frame dips will be twice as large as well if you do this
6:43 - 6:59 About that, it's a memory corruption and it can happen at any point in the game regardless of what stage you're in. Usually this can be easily fixed in Xenia by pressing the F4 key which basically fixes the corrupted textures currently on screen.
In terms of '06, look into the '06 Mod Manager, we (the '06 Modding Scene) have done quite a lot to the original game to spice it up.
6:44 The F5 trick you used later on in the video actually works for '06 as well! It happens a lot less often than with Generations, so I'd say that's a pretty good fix for this issue.
I just admire your love for Sonic games!
PSA, the development 'canary' build of xenia has an optional game patch for Unleashed that enables 60 fps without the vsync workaround along with a patch that makes the game render at a full 720p instead of the actual smaller resolution it normally does. Higher resolutions are still borked but the game runs really great in my experience now, just gotta use that xenia unleashed mod shown in the video. And you can use a patched .xex file to remove the 360 version's brown filter too. There's also mods for HD UI, homing attack on the A button, etc
Thanks for the video!
I think emulating a game that's available natively on PC can be a good thing for many reasons. Compatibility is probably the biggest one in the long term. A lot of PC ports from back in the day don't run nearly as well as they should these days and developers aren't too interested in maintaining the PC version for any future hardware/windows revisions. It's not too bad when it comes to the Sonic games thankfully but I have been able to play some games that outright refuse to run on my PC without major issues.
You also get some benefits in the short term as well such as easier controller setup for Parsec and easier resolution and framerate management when the native PC port doesn't offer much higher than the common settings of the time. It negates the need to go hunting around the internet for a fix/workaround.
And as of just recently, RPCS3 has added early save state support. This could be a big one once it's fleshed out.
At the moment all of these native PC ports run way better on PC so there is no reason to play the emulated version. Sonic All stars Racing runs beautifully on PC with support for completely unlocked framerate and arbitrary resolution support. That said I wonder how the Wii U version of Sonic Transformed runs in Cemu
Much like the cinematic masterpiece known as Morbius, there is no “improving” sonic 06, its amazing as is
Morbius more like mobius
Thanks for the advice. Good thing 06 runs perfectly. Unleashed will eventually get ported next
I'm honestly wanting to play Yakuza Ishin and Yakuza Kenzan with an English patch if one exists because God knows SEGA won't localise them now that Sato-san and Nagoshi-san have left the company
I'm waiting here for both Judgment titles on PC and of course Ishin and Kenzan ports. I believe they will get the Kiwami threatment.
Kenzan was never gonna get a translation for obvious story-related reasons (if you know you know) and Sato wanted the remake treatment for ISHIN a game that isn't dated in the slightest, and assuming he was referring to a Kiwami treatment of sorts, we probably wont get it because they confirmed that the Kiwami series was over. As for Judgement I don't even know, nothing about the pc port cancellation was confirmed and not only that, the PC port for the game is complete and used for streaming services like Stadia and Luna hence why they have mouse and keyboard prompts and better performance, I feel like Sega would've released it by now if they could.
@@CS-om3kj Really? It is like a Mother 3 situation?
@@moister3727 If you’re referring to Kenzan then yes, we’ll sort of. Let’s just say that they included it because it was a real thing that happened during Miyamoto Musashi’s time. Maybe they would’ve translated it back then but now it ain’t really a good time. Let’s just say: you know the CP Shrine in 0? in this game the bad guys kind of like a different kind of Completion Points and it ain’t good, though to RGG historical accuracy mattered
@@CS-om3kj Damn, that's rough. Including Call of Duty points in my Yakuza game *wink
It literally only took me 11 seconds on 360 (My Kinect black one) to load or sometimes less and OMG I’ll sub because you mentioned Sonic and Sega all stars racing which I’m also forced to use on my Xbox 360 and I have my DLCs
3:14 The way you said “Sonic 4” with the deep voice 🤣🤣🤣
If you emulate 06 on Xenia or RPCS3 you can play a mod of 06 that vastly improves the game (Legacy of Solaris). Granted P06 has all 3 campaigns now and all levels aside from the bosses and Final. So you would only miss the Bosses, Final Story, and Cutscenes.
Also thanks GVG! Thanks to you I now have a version of RPCS3 that can play LoS!
Hey can you please tell me where do I get sonic 06 rpcs3 version bcz I looked everywhere I can't find it
@@Zain-li3km Try looking at the version he has in the vid and looking for that name.
Quickly looking it back up myself (ie searching the build title in this vid sonic-race local build) it should be Elad's custom build.
Few things I'd like to address:
Firstly, there is a "SWA" build of Xenia by Skyth which also fixes a lot of issues with the game and makes it much more stable. You still can't finish it from start to finish but it's good for modding.
Secondly, RPCS3 also can't finish the game from start to finish smoothly. It can, but mostly night stages aren't very stable to run through.
12:25 - game is heavily utilizing SPUs, hence it's very CPU bound. It's a well-known tough to run game on the emulator and is used as a benchmark quite often. You'll have the best luck running it with a AVX-512 capable Intel CPU.
2:11 “this isn’t a complete game”
That means it’s a perfect port of Sonic ‘06
"Ground up remaster"
So remake... Remake was the word you were looking for
I've played Sonic Unleashed on RPCS3 and it runs way better than what you showed. I get a stable 60fps in most of the game.
I don't know if it's your PC or if it's the settings you have, but I definitely know you're doing something wrong here.
My PC has an Intel Core i9-12900K and 32GB of DDR4 RAM. I have Unleashed updated to 1.02 and, under Manage Game Patches, I have 1280x720 Resolution checked, Disable Depth Of Field checked, Disable Dynamic Shadows checked, Disable Motion Blur checked and Disable Real-Time Reflections checked.
In the settings, I have Full Width AVX-512 checked (make sure your CPU's E-cores are disabled if you're using an Intel Alder Lake CPU). This feature is extremely important if you want better performance in your PS3 games, especially Unleashed.
It might be because he has a AMD CPU and you cannot turn on AVX-512. I have a AMD CPU in my laptop and I have a similar issue to him. No matter how high I turn up the resolution game performance isn't that much better. Although plenty of segments do run well. Nevermind the fact that Intel still has the best performing CPUs out there
@@crestofhonor2349 Yeah that's probably why.
I hear the newer AMD Zen4 CPUs will support AVX-512. AMD fans who wanna emulate PS3 will be happy with this news.
@@AllieRX In my experience PS3 emulation has been great on my Ryzen 5800H. Sonic Unleashed is the only one with major performance issues. Stuff like P5 and other games run really well. But to be fair I haven't tested the game with all the effects taken away it takes away the amazing visuals that unleashed has but I will see if that improves anything but I doubt it. It might be a CPU limitation as I have a 3060 so I shouldn't be seeing a GPU bottleneck
@@crestofhonor2349 RPCS3 is very CPU demanding, but you don't really need an expensive GPU, unlike Xenia.
My PC has the 12900K, but it also has a GTX 1060 6GB. Yet I can get amazing performance, even at 4K.
So your 3060 is good. Just need a stronger CPU to emulate the harder to run PS3 games. God Of War III and God Off War: Ascension are two more examples.
For Sonic Unleashed on Xenia:
Xenia Unleashed is outdated, Xenia canary allows for a full playthrough of Sonic Unleashed
Ik this video is about emulation, but if you have a PS3 and want to play them on that, you can make 06/Unleashed/Generations run way better on PS3 if you turn the resolution of the console down. I was absolutely shocked by what it did to 06. It doesn't make the loading screens shorter but it really reduces the lag, it makes it really playable! As long as the lower resolution doesn't bother you obviously.
Oh yeah now that you mention it digital Foundry has mentioned that turning the resolution down does in fact improve performance across many games. In fact they just put out a 4 part video series regarding 1080 games on ps3 and found that in some cases setting the console resolution to 480p delivers acceptable performance than you would otherwise get at 720p or 1080p
Nintendo and Sega should do a Tennis game together with their characters as I think that would be fun.
great video! exactly what I wanted to know when comparing xenia and rpcs3 😎
finally a video covering my favorite niche topic
man i havnt heard the name "macintosh" since my childhood. you made me feel old jon xD
Thank you for this! I always wanted to try out 06 (just for the lols) and now I know how.
I actually liked the Sonic 06 Demo on Xbox 360 way more than the retail version. It felt polished, stable, and well put together unlike the "full game."
It's a demo, it has to be. The same applies to the unleashed demo.
16:18 didnt know Sonic 4 episode 2 took place during the opening of The Lion King.
Looking forward to the day that Xenia gives us the feature to map controller inputs to kinect motions similar to what you can do with Wii remote swings in Dolphin. Then Free Riders might actually become a playable game!
Pretty great informational video on the state of the games at this time
Sega Tennis alongside GTA IV was one of my favourites when I was 8-9 years old. Now in 2023 I’m 16 and I have a Series X I also have beaten GTA IV and would love to relive that nostalgia for Sega Tennis but yeah no backwards compatibility is a bit shit.
some graphical glitches in xenia can be eliminated by hitting F4 or F5 to reset the cache. in sonic 06 this is a lifesaver as i got stuck in aquatic base for ages due to screen tearing
Sonic Unleashed works so much better on the latest canary build of Xenia than even a few months ago. Vertex explosions are far rarer, a far improved framerate, and Skyscraper Scamper renders properly. It's crazy how much it's improved so quickly, and I'd imagine we're gonna get a mostly perfect emulated Sonic Unleashed experience in less than a year or two, maybe sooner.
It's a missed opportunity how the Xbox Series X didn't add Sonic Heroes, Shadow The Hedgehog, Sonic Mega Collection+, Sonic 06, and a few others. That would've made the Xbox Series X the ultimate Sonic console.
I dont think anyone even played the Xbox versions of those games.Much better to just emulate them on Dolphin, or the PC versions of Heroes.
And Microsoft said they stopped doing 360 ports a few months ago. They still ported games over afterwards, but SEGA probably just wants people to forget the game anyways.
Hey Jon, awesome video. It was a great showcase for the casual audience about what these emulators can do.
Unfortunately you made a slight mistake at 10:25. It would have been more accurate to just say "FSR is an upscaling method by AMD". FSR 1.0 used in Xenia and RPCS3 is a spatial scaler and is not like NVidia's DLSS (2.X). DLSS doesn't upscale an image but reconstructs it using temporal information (basically data based on previous frames). I know this is starting to get complicated and I am complaining about semantics, but unfortunately the comparison you made is false and I think it would just make people more confused.
Of course this is minor in the grand scheme of things, so perhaps it is just me being nitpicky. Nevertheless, I thought it would be best to clarify that
After destroying the loading screens, I'm convinced that Sonic 06 could've been the greatest game of all time, it's such a sad and tragic mess
Loading was the least of my problems on Xbox 360 it was really the cheap enemies costing my S ranks but I managed
I think I remember hearing something about 06's loading times
Apparently whenever the game loads THE WHOLE GAME LOADS, LIKE EVERYTHING
The entire game loads on a single .lua file
Tell me if I'm wrong though
Yeah you're wrong.
Like. Massively wrong.
i dont think the core game runs on lua, only certain aspects
@@Knuxfan24 eh, well, let's keep it up to see who falls for it
When I read this title, my thought process was "How would Jon improve the characters and story?"
Now I see we are talking about emulation
Not much to improve anyway.
@@bunsmasterbunny true.
I'm going to take it a step further and say that I even liked the story: yes it had its flaws, but I never thought it was that bad.
Also: SonicxElise for life💗
Story is cool, but flawed
@@natoriousthehopeful2786 Agree, Elise is a great character.
@@natoriousthehopeful2786 👏👏😏
you can sometimes fix the graphical bugs by pressing F4 on xenia, it's not optimal but atleast it's something
Your voice is actually godlike
with the latest canary build of xenia and using the vulkan backend, sonic unleashed is completely playable from start to finish, with only a few minor graphical issues
To me, it seems like RPCS3 is the more _accurate_ emulator, whereas Xenia can push games further although becoming less stable doing so. The way Sonic Unleashed was running on RPCS3? Yeah, that's how it runs on a PS3. Load times in Sonic '06 are maybe only (slightly) better because you're loading the game from an SSD or something along those lines.
Also, it's worth nothing that, even though it's kind of a different game, Unleashed for Wii works great on Dolphin.
It's worth point out that despite the launch model ps3 being backward compatible with ps2 games, Sega Superstars tennis is apparently one of the only ps2 games not playable on a backward compatible ps3.
The unleashed issues on xenia were mor efun for me, because the game doesn't crash and instead sonic's model explodes into polygons that take up the whole screen and don't let you see anything, but you can still play it blindfolded
0:51 so are we not gonna talk about that list of sonic games he has?
I have a video of me emulating 06 on Xenia with my low-end PC. It mostly runs great, but the texture bugs in the mach speed section of Wave Ocean are happening to me too! I thought that was just a "me" thing considering how bad my build is, but I guess it's just Xenia screwing one part up.
You can nowadays use Xenia Canary with Vulkan graphics API (easily configurable through Unleashed Mod Manager) to play through the entire game of Sonic Unleashed from beginning to end.
Good to see the RPCS3 Unleashed performance is not just my PC
I was afraid it was my PC only being about on par with a ps4pro but it seems like it just chugs anyway (though my specs certainly don't help)
Guess I'll have to wait till I can get an XBOX lmao
A ps4 pro is really powerful though?
@@wuavo9157 you are not aware how much stronger high end pcs can be
@@wuavo9157 PS4 Pro is weaker than a GTX 1060 GPU wise and worse than a i7-4700K CPU wise
@@ThatoneFelicia they are also way more expensive💀
@@crestofhonor2349 Sorry im not a nerd so i have no idea what that even means
unleashed is now fully playable on the latest xenia canary build you can unlock the fps and enjoy the entirety of unleashed on pc at 60 fps
I wonder if this type of their video could be some sorta #Hi-Technicaaal series or summat.
Like the Persona one as well.
A cute Super Paper Mario reference.
I would love a series like that tbh
As much as i've played P-06 to hell and back and how awesome of a game it is, I do crave for the original 06 despite how much of a contrast there is in the gameplay between the two. Seeing it run on xenia now is amazing. One of the big reasons for me to play P-06 was definitely the load times, so i think i'll be giving the original game another go on xenia at some point.
I remember a few years ago it *sort of* ran, but with graphical glitches out coming out your nose and crashes were frequent.
Does anyone happen to know if the DLC works on xenia too?
P.S Not that im discrediting P-06, it adds a ton of new features to the game which are definitlely appreciated, and boy am i hyped for Silvers story to be released after playing his short sections in Sonic and Shadows story
I think "Project 06" Should be called "Sonic The Hedgehog (2022)"
except for the fact that it wasnt started in 2022 and definitely will not be finished in 2022
I wish someone made a mod allowing you to play as the missing characters in the PC port of Sonic & Sega all starts racing
There's a Skyth Xenia Exe that fixes most problems of Unleashed
sonic 4 on rpcs3 is actually great, you can upscale to 1440p, unlike the pc port that is internally capped to 720p
also try skyth build of xenia and also the mods for unleashed that make the game run at a full 1280x720 instead of the weird anamorphic res they use for even better upscaling
Yeah, but it's still sonic 4
John knows what I want.
SEGA should make project 06 official and release it on steam ❤️
Wait till CahosX finishes it, then say that... We don't want Sega getting their filthy hands on it before final release, they will ruin it...
Thats a terrible idea.
Shit idea
Mania was made by fans and it was awesome, sonic 06 being remade by fans and is looking awesome. Sega's own remastered colors was pretty bad so I agree Sega should just get fans to make their games, since they can't seem to make their own games anymore well besides Yakuza
@@sendorift1475 Thats a terrible idea. It makes SEGA look bad, and people would hate on them for making the fans do the work.
Not the video I was expecting with that title
The PS3 version of Unleashed isn't actually RPCS3's fault, as the frame drops act exactly the same (to my knowledge) as on real hardware. The PS3 actually doesn't have a framecap unlike the 360 version by default, too, but is still barely able to ever reach 60.
I wish you had also tried "Sonic the Fighters" for ps3 and 360 , its the best version of the game that was updated to let you play as Metal Sonic, Doctor Robotnik, and Honey the Cat with no cheats instead of emulated gems collection version where honey is unfinished. The only other way to play this updated game on modern systems is in the in game arcade of the game "Lost Judgment".
Now, if only we can get the wrestling games working on these things. Not just WWE, either.
So it's weird, the chugging and FPS drops in PS3 Unleashed were actually in the original, especially that bit at 12:20, but it was never *that* bad, it's like the emulator amplified the faults
Both of these are community driven emulators that are constantly getting updated by programmers on their spare time, trying to get them to work with EVERY game released on each platform. I guarantee both of these are going to be far better in time.
@@weirdotzero7065 I never said it was a bad thing?? I understand emulation is never going to be perfect, especially early on. What I was commenting on was that it was just interesting how the same frame drops appear, that means it's actually not an emulation problem, it's the "hardware" of the emulated ps3 that's causing the issue. Meaning actual PS3's were never able to keep up with that section, which I can confirm because I get constant frame drops on that exact section on real hardware, just not as drastic
I only found this because I still have my copy of 06 but I haven’t seen my 360 in 10 years
Honestly the Banjo Kazooie version of that game not being compatible with Series X boggles my mind still. I can remember trying it myself only to be disappointed and very confused. Should have been up at the top of their list with a Rare IP in it.
if i recall xenia has some important audio delays
how did you make it so perfectly synced?
6:46 you can press F4 to reduce artifacts
You should make a video like this for GTA 1, 2, and London tbh
Dang I wish I had a proper PC to try these. I actually tried to buy 06 when it showed up on the 360 marketplace for like $5, but I'm in Venezuela and region locking just wouldn't let me. I also tried to set up a VPN to get around it to no avail.
I also don't mind low resolutions much, my TV is 1080p and I only own a Switch lol.
Cant you change the region of your account?
If you're very dedicated, you may be able to Jtag or RGH your Xbox and be able to play an ISO of the game. It's not easy at all but there's a lot of resources on how to pull it off.
@@wuavo9157 Not really. Steam kinda hates that and has been known to ban accounts for trying to buy and pplay games from other regions if you do not live there
@@crestofhonor2349 bro we are talking about xbox.. xbox lets you change the region of the console
There is only one HUGE problem with Sonic 2006 on Xenia... SHADOW'S KINGDOM VALLEY!!! Shadow spawning a bit higher and he can't start a plane. There is 1/115 change, that level will be ok. I have checked this.
Wait this is that Nintendo Life guy? No wait Did You Know Gaming?? GameXplain??? I recognize this voice
Should we tell him boys
Old man: here has you some shoeses run through yon orange orangutangs
Loading...
Old man: I like men
Loading...
Gameplay...
Old man: oh u did it none hadn't completed thon challenge.
Surprised you didn't mention the mod manager for Sonic 06.
Transformed on PC has a huge issue, it doesn't work on newer PCs with RTX cards. It just crashes on boot due to RTX cards not have a specific DX9 thing. You need to use a DirectX to Vulkan dll to make it work through Vulkan
im sure theres already other comments but F5 fixes graphical bugs in xenia whenever they pop up.
What are your system specs?
Intel i9 90000k RTX 3090 ti 64GB RAM Seagate 4TB HDD
Update for y'all, there may be hope for Sonic Free Riders after all.
There is a no kinect patch and its also playable on original hardware but for real 360 you still need to connect a kinect
@@Rasheed470 Not for long.
Early in the PS3's life multiplatform games generally ran a lot worse than later on where they were usually very close. Developers had no experience with the Cell SPEs and without its help the GPU and CPU side is weaker than 360. Dev tools also improved a lot and I think that's part of why companies like Valve made a U-turn and returned to developing for the PS3.
I haven't tried it, but supposedly the PS3 version of 06 runs really poorly. Considering the 360 version doesn't run great to begin with I wonder how poor it is.
I can't speak for the Xbox, but whenever I played as Tails in Sega Superstars Tennis, on Wii, he would freeze. Not the game, Tails himself would freeze, and I wouldn't be able to move anymore
Looking at RCPS3 gameplay of Sonic Unleashed i think I'm fine just sticking with the game on the PS3
Yeah! How can we?
Upscaling in Xenia kills my GPU (GTX 1070 Ti) hahaha
I prefer playing Sonic 2006 in RPCS3 due to 2K looks great than 720p in Xenia, loading times is not a problem for me xP
2:22 yes please
I only have 1440p anyway. So, am I rockin' on archaic hardware, or is my predator 144hz still ok?
For reference, what are your PC's specs?
I swear the 06 disc had sonic's face on it???
Only the USA version disc
Why didn't the removal of the framerate cap on Sega Tennis work?
X box series X powerful enough to make unleashed run smoothly, could it make 06 have somewhat reasonable load times?
Yes, of course!
Hypothetically, yes but considering the game itself can be quite buggy I expect that even if Microsoft tried to bring over the game there will be a lot of unintended issues that may crop up from having the game run through an emulator much like it does on Xenia or rpcs3
@@GenerationZ313 Microsoft ports the games to the new xbox. Its not emulating.
Where did you get this custom build for rpcs3 sonic 06
UPDATE: YOU CAN NOW PLAY UNLEASHED ON XENIA FROM START TO FINISH WITH BARELY ANY GRAPHICAL GLITCHES.
This is fantastic! Thanks for the update!
EDIT: Question: Is it playable in 4K 60FPS, or do I have to turn down the resolution?
@@BLamb nah 4k slows it down really bad.
give it a year and a half or two its probably gonna be playable at 4k then